About Us

Established in 1962, Hestico (Pty)Ltd is a leading supplier of machines , ancillary equipment and components to the plastic, rubber & packaging industries.
Hestico's comprehensive clustomer services include a well trained team of technicians and an extensive inventory of spare parts,together with our customised premises in Kew, allow us to offer a professional and efficient service.
Hestico has exclusive agreements with top international OEMs. This means that we supply the world's best to the Southern African market, cost-effectively and professionally. Our technicians are Siemens OEM qualified.Backed by our extensive knowledge and experience of plastic processing techniques.

History of Hestico (Pty)Ltd

Hestico was founded in May 1962 by Herman Ernst Stiegler and Conrad Niehaus. At that time the company was called CF Niehaus and Co. and only changed its name to Hestico in 1970 when Herbert Ernst Seitz joined the company and Conrad Niehaus left. From inception the company was supplying machinery for the plastics and rubber industry in SA and Werner and Pfleiderer, Berstorff and Mann and Hummel were the first companies that CF Niehaus ( later Hestico ) represented.

As the company grew more agencies were added eventually in 1968 the DME products were added as well. This was taken over by the late Peter Hengst who had joined CF Niehaus as sales engineer and amongst other agencies also promoted DME. In January 1974 Norbert Funk joined Hestico to take over the DME section as the machinery side had grown to such an extent that Peter could not spend enough time on DME which was showing huge signs of potential. In February 74 Fritz Kettner a specialist in packaging joined Hestico and proceeded to sell Illig packaging machines to industry in SA. In July of the same year Heiner Wolber joined Hestico as sales engineer for DME and related products. By this time the company had grown to a staff of 9. Our premises were still situated at 44 Richard street in Selby JHB. In 1976 Peter Hengst left Hestico and opened a company called Bekum SA which specialized in blow moulding machinery. In the same year Norbert Funk left as well and opened a company called Form Mould Services manufacturing mould components in opposition to the DME products that Hestico supplied from Europe. Heiner then took over as DME manager at Hestico.

During 1978 the company Internatio started helping Hestico in both Durban and Cape Town selling our DME products and acting as a sub-agent for us. This is when we got to know June Smith in Durban and Gerhard Greiner in Cape town who were helping with DME sales in these 2 coastal cities.

In 1981 Fritz Kettner and Heiner Wolber became directors and shareholders of the company but unfortunately in October 1985 Hermann Stiegler died after a bypass operation, and this was shortly after Hestico had moved their premises to 106 10th road in Kew JHB. By this time Herbert Seitz had taken over as man. Director from Herman. In 1985 Herberts son Wolf-Dietrich Seitz joined Hestico as a sales engineer for Dynisco, Mann + Hummel, Barmag and Werner + Pfleiderer sales. Wolf was promoted to a director in 1989.

In 1988 the company purchased a 3000 square meter property in 10th and started building its own premises. In October 1989 the company moved into their new premises in 94 – 96 10th road in Kew. In 1990 hestico opened their first coastal branch in CT and a few months later in DBN as well. This was the time when Internatio closed their plastics machine division in South Africa and Gerhard Greiner with some Internatio staff joined Hestico in Cape Town. The branch in CT became a separate company and Gerhard took over as MD of Hestico Cape ( pty ) ltd and also became a shareholder of this division. June Smith from the Internatio branch in Durban joined Hestico Durban branch and was in charge of DME products in Natal. By this time Hestico became the biggest Plastics machinery supplier in South Africa with a staff of around 40. At this point the Arburg injection moulding machine agency became part of the Hestico program which the company took over from Internatio. Various other agencies namely Rinco ultrasonic welding equipment as well as Madag printing equipment came to Hestico from Internatio as well.

Herbert Seitz retired in 1992 and Heiner took over as MD. In 1997 Peter Hengst approached Hestico to merge the 2 companies because Affirm Machinery Sales as it was then called had a very strong hold of the Blow Moulding market in SA and this was the only thing that Hestico was not involved in.The merger was done and the name Hestico remained and Afirm machinery eventually fell away. Peter then became a shareholder of of the Hestico group of companies. Coprah investment holdings was formed and Hestico, Satcor, and Afirm machinery suppliers fell under the holding company. Wolf Seitz resigned as a director and left the company in July 2000.

In 1998 Juanita Stiehler joined Hestico as sales engineer and concentrated on the sale of Injection moulding machinery as well as certain downstream equipment. Towards the end of 2002 Fritz Kettner retired and moved with his family to Austria. Then on the 1 – 09 – 2002 Juanita joined the then 3 remaining directors as a director and shareholder of Coprah investment making her the 4th shareholder of the group.

On the 1st of February 2004 Kelvin Mills joined the company with the intention of taking over from Peter in the blow moulding division.                 
                                                                                             Directors : Kelvin Mills , Heiner Wolber and Juanita Stiehler-Brits

Peter retired at the end of 2004 and Kelvin was now in charge of blow moulding. He became a director and shareholder on the 1st of March 2006.

More recently the company has started representing companies from China, and Taiwan to fall into line with the many competitors selling equipment from these countries.

We represent the following international agencies:

Plastic Machines

Aoki Injection stretch blow moulding machines
Arburg injection moulding machines
Uniloy Blow moulding machines and structural foam machines
Ossberger Injection blow moulding machines
Sikoplast recycling lines

Rubber & Foam Machines

Fecken – Kirfel – Foam and rubber cutting and converting equipment

Packaging Machines

Illig – Packaging equipment
Jura-plast - Plastic Film

Mould and Die Components

DME – Mould components, hot runner systems
Argofile – polishing equipment
Yudo – Hotrunner systems
Gammaflux – Hot runner controllers

Ancillary Equipment

JR Schneider -
Maguire – Gravimetric blenders, dryers and conveying equipment
Rinco – Ultrasonic welding equipment
Wittman – Robots, flow regulators, temperature controllers, dryers, central conveying systems
Yann Bang – Hopper loaders, hot air dryers

Lab Equipment and Instrumentation

Dynisco – Temperature instrumentation and testing and laboratory equipment

Specialised Products

Eisbδr DAS (Dry Air Cooling System)
Keppel Seghers’ thermal cleaning system
Coratex – Purging emulsion
plastOclean color and / or material change
Jura Plast Film for packaging
J.R. Schneider Filter Media
Lectro Treat Plastic Surface Treating Systems
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